The dream becomes even more realizable when Candy asks to be part of it with them. He offers “S’pose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in.” With more money and another person’s determination, there is new hope for the dream to become reality, perhaps even in the near future. Steinbeck uses this situation to convey that dreams are strengthened by companionship, and companionship is strengthened by a shared dream. At the end of the book when George intends to shoot Lennie, he distracts him by making him look into the distance and think of the dream, ironically just after the dream ceases to be possible for either of them, because of Lennie’s actions. The comfort of having a dream is partly about believing in the possibility of them, and being able to imagine a world where the dream exists.
Throughout Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses light and darkness to illustrate a powerful image; the spectrum of hope and dreams, despair and hopelessness. In the bunkhouse, the ‘small square windows’ symbolize that there is little light let into the bunkhouse, and little hope for the men who live there. Also, ‘the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows’, this represents that the little hope in the bunk house only helps to further illuminate the darkness and harshness of society. In a setting, such as the ranch, where dreams are suppressed and suffocated, they take on a greater importance and significance to the mens lives, they rely on the dreams to get by.
Whilst Steinbeck portrays that dreams cause happiness, companionship and determination, he also wants to demonstrate to the reader the fragility of dreams in this society. There are so many aspects that can contribute as to why the characters dreams are not realised, they are restricted by power of the people, prejudice against race, age, sex, mental or physical disability, and by social mentality. Steinbeck illustrates these things though Crooks. ‘The stable bucks a nigger’ and because of this Crooks has less hope than the other men. In his room he has a ‘small electric globe’, symbolizing fake hope. Because of lack of a dream, or a broken dream in the past, Crooks has a cynical and skeptical view towards the aspirations of others, leaving him isolated and alone. When Lennie tells him about his dream, Crooks responds ‘You’re nuts..nobody ever gets no land’. He believes that there is no possibility of this dream, the ‘american dream’, being realised, because everybody desires it, but it is seldom achieved.
In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck does not portray dreams as being completely futile. Using characters such as Lennie, George and Candy, he shows that dreams do not guarantee a better outcome to their lives, but they do help them to live their lives with purpose, determination and companionship. The way Steinbeck portrays Crooks and Curley’s Wife explicates that whilst it is important to remember that dreams are often fragile and in-accomplishable, a lack of a dream and too much synicism will attribute to a life of darkness, loneliness and isolation. Steinbeck’s key point is that dreams are worth having, but are unlikely to come to fruition. What’s importation is the aspiration of dreams, not the realisation.
